


Bloodlines

by pipisafoat



Series: Harry Granger [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Adoption, Arranged Marriage, Dark Magic, Gen, Obliviation, Squibs, Unforgivable Curses (Harry Potter)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-07
Updated: 2017-06-07
Packaged: 2018-11-10 01:50:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11117367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pipisafoat/pseuds/pipisafoat
Summary: Every superhero needs an origin story, and Alavani Emily Burke-Granger is no exception.





	Bloodlines

Caractacus Burke frowns down at the young girl standing before him in the Slytherin common room. She’s scrawny, even considering that she’s just a firstie, and he makes a mental note to see if his father will reconsider their marriage contract. “Whatever,” he replies to her introduction, turning away so dismissively that even a child like her understands not to bother him for the last three years of his schooling.

He simmers in her general direction at their wedding, fully aware that it’s their parents to blame for forcing the marriage contract but still angry with her for still being a tiny weakling. At least he knows, from a provision he weaseled into the contract, that she’s fertile enough to give him at least one heir.

He kicks himself mentally for not having the Healers ensure she was strong enough and healthy enough to carry the pregnancies to term. It’s required an Imperius curse to keep the stupid wench to her bed rest for this pregnancy; she lost the first two potential heirs because he didn’t think to control her to this extreme.

It’s worth it, though, when he’s finally relaxing in his study with some school mates and listening to the screams of his wife’s labor echo through the house. He’s not even sad when the Healer tells him the woman died in childbirth, because he has a healthy baby. The Healer places a bundle in his arms and says cheerfully, “This is your daughter!” (On the plus side, he can now remarry a stronger woman to get the sons he needs to carry on the line.)

Caractacus doesn’t slack on his offspring, even if it is a girl. Alavani Burke is drilled on etiquette, society, purity, and the beginnings of dark magic before she can even speak. She’s clearly intelligent and takes to the lessons with the desperation of a child who knows she can perform perfectly and still not please her father. He is pleased, of course, with her response to him; a good pureblood woman is subservient to her betters. He rewards her with quiet pauses instead of curses, rare nods of his head, and even rarer physical contact. Her bushy hair irritates him too much, reminds him too much of her weakling mother, for him to stroke it more than a couple times a year.

Still, he’s relatively pleased with his daughter right up until the day she takes his wand from the table and pretends to cast the Cruciatus curse. Oh, he’s right chuffed that she chose his favorite spell and completely unsurprised that she couldn’t cast it, but the natural progression of that day is what ruins her to him. He suggests Lumos as an appropriate first spell on an unfamiliar wand, dragging her into the study to test ancestors’ wands when his fails to light at all for her. Five hours later, Alavani is in tears and Caractacus is staring at the results of a detection spell with growing horror.

Ten minutes later, he watches Alavani embrace a pair of strangers and call them Mummy and Daddy. He spins in place and reappears in his own home with a crack. Squibs are much better served hidden away from real society, and he doesn’t have the time or inclination to deal with a waste of air like his former daughter. Better to let Muggles adopt her before she knows more than can be Obliviated.


End file.
